So, You Want to Live in the Fenway?
This ballpark-adjacent neighborhood is a home run for city buyers.
Photo by Drone Home Media / Cheryl Cotney, Compass Chestnut Hill (Listing Agent)
1. Pick Your Price Point
Looking for lots of space? Though there are a few single-families on the market in this neighborhood, you’re more likely to find two- to five-bedroom condos in new buildings with amenities such as central AC and garage parking (starting price: around $1 million). If you don’t need that much room, cozy studios and one-beds in older buildings can be snagged for as little as $400,000.
2. Plot Your Commute
A less-than-30-minute ride on the Green Line will keep your commute downtown short and sweet. For those who work outside of the city, the commuter rail has a stop at Lansdowne Station on the Worcester Line. If you have a car, a resident parking sticker gives you access to street parking, which is usually plentiful (except when the Sox are playing a home game, of course).
Eddie Hou of Jennie & Eddie/The Luxury Living Boston Team at Regatta Realty (Photographer and Listing Agent)
Photo via Boston Globe/Getty Images
3. Take in the Vibe
The area’s claim to fame has long been Fenway Park. But it’s also seen a surge in development recently, including 401 Park, which transformed the former Sears complex. Next up is 1400 Boylston Street, which will turn a dated Star Market and parking lots into office and research space and restaurants, as well as Fenway Corners, a 5-acre redevelopment next to the ballpark.
Photo by Andrey Denisyuk/Getty Images
4. Check out the Culture
Formerly a muddy marshland bordering the Back Bay, Fenway had humble beginnings for what is now a thriving part of the city. Home to the Museum of Fine Arts and the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, the neighborhood also has plenty of green space thanks to the Emerald Necklace, a 1,100-acre park system that stretches through Fenway and neighboring Brookline, Roxbury, and Jamaica Plain.
5. Scope out the Schools
Many of the city’s 250,000 college students live in Fenway, home to Emmanuel, Northeastern, MassArt, Simmons, and Wentworth, among other schools. While there are no public elementary schools in the neighborhood—younger kids get their education in J.P. or the South End—there is the public Fenway High School, Boston Latin, and Boston Arts Academy, as well as the private Boston University Academy.
Photo via Boston Globe/Getty Images
First published in the February 2025 print edition of Boston Magazine with the headline, “So You Want to Live In…Fenway.”
